


Time is Short

by hops



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (i think this could easily be a magnus/lucretia thing if u squint but), Best Friends, Gen, IPRE Era, The Stolen Century, spoilers for ep 65, they're!!!!!!! best friends!!!!!!! kill me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 04:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11222964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: (SPOILERS for ep 65!)After Lucretia's year alone, Magnus checks in on his friend (and his fish), only to find that her time was even harder than he'd imagined it to be.





	Time is Short

Magnus hesitated.  

Hand raised in a fist, ready to knock on the door of Lucretia's quarters, he stopped himself. A new cycle had begun for the seven, after six of them had died right off the bat and left Lucretia to fend for herself for a year.  _A whole year._ As they'd reformed on the deck and found her huddled on the floor, the ship in worse shape than it'd ever been before, Magnus was shaken. He'd seen Lucretia cry before over the years, but never like that. The image stuck with him: those wide, silvery-blue eyes. Parted lips. Dark circles. Tears. Big, watery tears that rolled as her voice shook.  _"I made it."_  

So he stood outside her door, not knowing what to say. Not wanting to overstep the boundaries that, in all honesty, were probably already lost to the decades they'd spent together. If Magnus knew Lucretia, he knew that she needed a friend right now. 

He swallowed down his hesitation and knocked softly on the door.  

"Come in," came her small voice from within the room.  

He opened the door slowly. "Hey, Luc... I, uh..." He glanced around her quarters, which were messier than he'd ever seen them before. She sat on her bed, nose buried in a book. "I wanted to check on Fisher."  

 _Idiot._ He cursed himself for making it seem like he'd come for any other reason but to see her.  

"Oh... Yes, well, he's doing well." She didn't move from behind her book.  

Magnus walked over to the large tank where the Voidfish greeted him gleefully with a song. He held his palm to the glass and the fish answered with a long bellow, placing a tentacle up to meet him, colors rippling through its body.  

Lucretia cleared her throat a little and spoke once more. "He kept me company. But he missed you terribly."  

"I'm glad he was here," Magnus said, looking from the tank to Lucretia on her bed. "I'm... sorry. That I wasn't."  

"I'm just glad I was able to get the ship out in time for everyone to come back."  

He could hear her holding back tears. He took his hand from the Voidfish's tank and walked over to sit at the foot of her bed.  

"I can't imagine what that felt like, Luc. I'm so sorry... I... We should have done things differently, we--" 

She cut him off, putting her book down and looking away for a long moment. "It's over now."  

"Lucretia."  

She turned to him suddenly, silvery-blue eyes brimming with tears, staring him square in the face. They sat like that for what felt like a whole cycle, to Magnus. Frozen in place, locking eyes with her grief.  

"I've... never, ever been alone like that." She spoke slowly, trying to annunciate every syllable of every word despite the trembling of her bottom lip. "I never realized how much I... rely on you all, to hold me up. Especially you, Magnus."  

He wanted to take the last year of her life and set it on fire. Though he was undeniably proud of her for what she had done and how she had essentially saved them all with her strength and her wit... She didn't  _deserve_ that kind of isolation. The constant fear, the anxiety, the strife. Guilt rolled through him on a wave of nausea as he thought about the toll this cycle had taken on her. He couldn't speak.  

"I thought... I really thought, for a while there, that I was never going to see you again."  

With that, she dissolved into sobs, placing a hand over her eyes so he couldn't see her.  

"Lucretia."  

He moved to the head of her bed and took her into his arms. He had hoped that a tight squeeze would help her crying, but it only made her cry more.  

"They chased me, night and day. There were times that I didn't, I  _couldn't,_ sleep for days." Her voice was muffled against his chest, but he listened intently. "I had to keep thinking about you all. I just tried to keep taking care of Fisher, and—and--"  

He rubbed circles on her back as she took a break to breathe deeply. "We're here now. We're not going anywhere this time."  

She sounded defeated when she spoke again. "It was somehow so quick, but so slow. Always running... It was the longest year of my life, but I barely had time to write anything down. But I tried to read a little, here and there. What I'd already written. I was scared of forgetting you all."  

Magnus laughed a little bit, sending a rumble through her cheekbone. "I don't think you ever could."  

He felt her crack a smile. "No. No, I don't think so either."  

"I'm proud of you, Luc. I know it must have been horrible. And I wish you didn't have to go through that, but I'm glad you're here. I'm thankful for what you've done for us."  

She was still teary as she looked up at him. "I... I'd do it all again, in a heartbeat. You all are... Magnus, can I say something?"  

"Of course."  

"I realized this year that... Any time anything happened, good or bad, it was a reflex for me to turn and look for one of you. Look to Merle for a laugh, or to Lup for reassurance, but it was in those hardest times that I found myself looking for you. Time is... time is short, Magnus. We're always running from it, but we never know which of these cycles will be the last and I don't think I want to keep running without you knowing the truth. You're my best friend. I never told you that." She let out a long breath. "I never told you that, and I agonized over it. I feared we would all die without you ever knowing." 

Magnus couldn't help the tears that pricked his eyes, or the proud smile that rose on his lips. "You're my best friend too, Lucretia."  

"God, I feel so foolish," she said, pulling away from him a bit. "I'm sorry. I just really missed you." Her bottom lip was quivering again as she looked at him. "You and that stupid black eye."  

He grinned, mussing her hair. "An unforgettable barfight. C'mon, let's get ready for dinner. I bet you missed Taako's cooking more than you missed me."  

"…I won't run this moment by answering that truthfully." 

He helped her to her feet and tidied up the room with her briefly before turning to her once more and pulling her into a hug. Across the room, the Voidfish sang a happy tune, one he remembered from those very first days he and Lucretia spent in the caves, playing with the wooden ducks and letting the Voidfish's songs be the only sound that passed between them. It was that year that their friendship had really taken root.  

"I'm glad to be back. I'm proud of you, Luc." He released her and smiled, waiting until the grin reflected on her face as well. "We're not going anywhere this time around. Not if I can help it."  

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, I'm very much enjoying writing these kinds of "reading between the lines/filling in the gaps" type of things, so if you have any requests or comments please drop em below or hit me up on tumblr! @maegnus/@luplitch


End file.
